Day 13: We have to do some research right?

Hey there and welcome back to my journey of my film opening! In order to create a proper opening that establishes the character and the conflict, I need to research a few COA film openings to serve as inspiration on how to effectively accomplish this. The three openings I've decided to research and analyze are:

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
2. Juno (2007)
3. The First Time (2012)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) tells the story of Charlie, an awkward freshman in high school, navigating through relationships and mental health. 

Because this video shows the first 10 minutes, I watched until the 2:38 timestamp.

The opening of this film starts with about 1:35 of the credit sequence on top of closeups of a tunnel with "Could It Be Another Change" by The Samples playing in the background. The lyrics in the picture to the left, are the ones in the opening. This sets the tone of the film to be melancholic but still a little bit hopeful. The opening introduces the main character, Charlie, with him writing a letter to an unnamed friend. Charlie voices-over the opening as if he was reading us the letter and we learn the conflict: he hasn't talked to anyone besides his family all summer. He says/writes that he wants to change that, because his first day of high school is the next day. The opening introduces Charlie as an introvert because in the letter, he says that he wants to stay anonymous. Another hint is that he hasn't talked to anyone all summer. Lastly, instead of thinking about the adventures of high school, Charlie is thinking about how long it will be until his last day of high school. This opening introduces the main character as well as alludes to a conflict, being that Charlie might not have friends, or has a hard time making them.

 

Juno (2007) is about a high school girl named Juno, who has an unplanned pregnancy and follows her through a year of her life, highlighting the struggles of teen pregnancy.

The opening begins of Juno begins with a wide shot, of a Juno, who is holding a jug of Sunny D and staring at a living room chair. She then says that everything started with this chair. We then learn from a flashback that Juno and a guy seemingly had sex on this chair and is what she is referring to. Then we hear a dog barking, which snaps the opening back to reality. As Juno starts to walk somewhere, "All I Want Is You" by Barry Louis Polisar begins to play. The song choice is important because it sets a little bit of a playful tone. Paired with Juno's slightly sarcastic character and the animated credits, the film entices the viewer to continue watching to answer questions such as, is Juno actually pregnant like in the posters? What does she decide to do with the baby if she is? This opening seems to take the approach of introducing the main character and possible conflict, just like the Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Finally, The First Time (2012) is about a high school senior named Dave, who meets Aubrey at a party and fall in love over a weekend. The film portrays all of the stages of a first relationship including both the awkward and enjoyable ones.

This video is the full film, currently available on YouTube to watch for free with ads. I watched up until the 2:31 mark for the purpose of this research.

The opening of The First Time, begins with a series of medium shots and closeups of what seems to be a high school party. Along with the upbeat song, "Silly Boy" by The Blue Van playing in the background, the opening suggests that this film will be a roller coaster of emotions. There are couples that are all over each other, people throwing up, and also having fun. We also see Dave focused and frustrated about something that seems to be a speech of some sort. Around the 2 minute mark, Dave and Aubrey meet in an alleyway with Aubrey asking why he's talking to himself. This shows Dave's character as someone who doesn't necessarily follow the crowd because he isn't inside partying with everyone else, he is practicing something that could be important in the following scenes. 

What can I take away from today's research?

Today's research was honestly extremely helpful. I realized that in the COA genre, the openings usually consist of a song that completely establishes the tone for the rest of the film. Throughout my research, that was the common theme. Some songs chosen for openings set the tone to be a bit more depressing, while others are more cheerful and exciting. 

Story Update:

With this, comes the fact that I have changed the story for my opening. The story that I previously wanted to tell was too complex and a 2 minute opening would not have been sufficient time to tell it. Over this past weekend, I created my own personal blog, and decided to base my opening on a girl who started a blog. When creating my blog, I came up with several possible names and one of the ones I did not use was "maia: unfiltered". I will voice-over the opening as if I'm reading the first post, similar to that of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. 

During the opening I will establish the character, me, who has just started a blog. The reason she started the blog might be because she wants to make sure people know the importance of global warming, and its effects on the world. That's what I have for now, and hopefully by the end of the week I will have written the script.

Thank you for reading today's research and I'll see you in the next one where I'll be researching COA credit sequences.

Sources:

Genius. (n.d.). The Samples – Could It Be Another Change lyrics. https://genius.com/The-samples-could-it-be-another-change-lyrics

IMDb. (n.d.). The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Retrieved January 27, 2026, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1659337/

IMDb. (n.d.). Juno: Plot summary. Retrieved January 27, 2026, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467406/plotsummary/